Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Years Day Kite Flying at Mariners Point, San Diego

My dear, former Camp Fire Kid Club friends invited me to go to the 20th annual New Years Day Kite Flying at Mariners Point in Mission Bay, San Diego. I'm not a great kite flier, but love aerodynamics and an adventure, so I went.
Though fog was all around us, the sky was blue directly over the kites. The San Diego Kite Club was there in force. Some kite club members came all the way from Arizona to be there, so a little fog was not going to stop this wonderful kite-flying day!

In the distance we saw a group of precision kite fliers start flying their Revolution kites in formation like the Blue Angels fly. I was amazed that kites could do this! The kites weren't the only beautiful thing to watch. The lines of the precision flying kites would twist one way as the kites maneuvered. Then the kites would fly in the opposite rotation and the lines would untwist. It was an amazing dance in the sky to watch!
The flight squadron with the red, white, and blue kites in the video were a part of the World Record Breaking Kite Group. They flew 64 kites in a straight line! The kite fliers in these videos are Cass and Carol Pittman, John Mason, Tom King, and Lynn and Jim Foster. Jim Foster is the commander giving the orders and leading the kites.

Dan Willan, the president of the San Diego Kite Club was very kind and told me the history of kites. Kite flying started at least as early as 10 centuries ago in China. China, Taiwan, and France are countries that really enjoy kite flying and have a lot of precision flying competitions. The next event just like this one at Mariners Point will happen in March in Arizona.

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About Me

Isolde Ulrich (www.isoldeulrich.com) is the author of the memoir, "The Romance of Kilimanjaro." She has always been a pioneer for women. She became the first female president of the student chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at UC Berkeley and started the Stanford versus Cal Engineering Day.
During a stellar career as a mechanical engineer, she made inroads for female engineers in America and Japan. She successfully led a Japanese engineering project and kept the fact that she was a woman a secret. When she finished the nine-month, million-dollar project on time and within budget, she finally had her boss tell Japanese subsidiary that she was a woman and upended their world.
She also has designed and built a now famous estate featured on MTV, raised two beautiful and intellectually gifted children, taught school of religion, was voted one of the best landscape designers in San Diego County, and is a guest math teacher for secondary schools. Isolde thrives on creating original solutions and is always evolving and learning to successfully deal with obstacles or challenges set before her. She hopes to continue to be God's pioneer and example for others.